Rob van Tol - 05:14am Nov 12, 2002 PST (#3259 of 3306)
Well are you going to Ave, or what!
AETO AAR Chris Yates (Wallies), Karl Bown (Germany), Alan Garish
(Italy), Rob van Tol (Russia) got together on a wet weekend in England.
Gathering round we examine the bits, which mainly consists of laughing
at the mistakes on the map of England. Despite being the oldest and most
mapped country in the world, it is a well know wargaming convention that
English cities are scattered around randomly, even though every effort
is made to stick Smolensk and Gomel in just the right spot. So as
someone who actually lives in Leeds, I’ll be enjoying my new location
near Scotland. At least the cities are spelt right, which is more than
most games can quite manage. I must remember to design a game one day
and locate New York in Canada … I’m sure they wont mind, just like the
hapless citizens of Bristol who now find themselves unexpectedly Welsh.
Anyhow, it doesn’t matter; it just makes us laugh … again.
September 1939 The RAF’s night bombers and the Kreigsmarine’s marine
surface raiders share honours at 5EP. But the Kreigsmarine has more fun
sneaking U-47 into Scapa Flow and sinking the poor old Royal Oak, again.
It is salvageable, if the Royal Navy starts to run out of old
battlewagons.
With a sudden rush of blood to head, and a taste for more strategic
warfare damage, Admiral Lutjens sorties with the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau,
a CL and a DD for jolly bit of raiding into the North Atlantic. No
fleet-in-being for the new improved Kreigsmarine. In fairness … yes I
can be fair … we always considered this game as a tutorial exercise, and
so were keen to try out things that in the game context might seem a bit
rash. Unfortunately for Gunther Lutjens, Chris was keen to try out his
fabled dicing skills in the guise of Casino Yates, the man who doesn’t
need tactics when you can throw top dice. An easy spot off Scapa Flow
followed by three 11s out of six rolls sent both the CL and the DD into
an early grave, and flipped the Gneisenau – never a lucky ship.
With the easy confidence of a man who can sink any thing, Chris
organised five search groups to track down the Graf Spee and Lûtzow
sulking down in the South Atlantic. The fifth group, Berwick, London,
Kent and Dorestshire spot and slot the Graf Spee for a flipped London, a
fair trade.
And just too over emphasise the point, Chris sent the out the remaining
R class battleships of the Home Fleet in two groups to hunt down the
Scharnhorst & Gneisenau. Even in Gneisenau’s damaged state, Chris needed
a 6 to spot … so no problem there. And in their finest hour since
Jutland, Resolution and Ramillies sink the Gneisenau (9) and damages the
Scharnhorst (10). It almost seemed like piqué when the Scharnhorst sank
the Resolution in exchange.
It almost felt too dangerous to go to sea, though the BEF and Armee
d’Afrika slipped into France unharmed.
In brave little Poland, the Nazi bully boys (Allan and Karl sharing
command) did there thing with the usual economy. For a flipped Me109 and
an infantry step loss, they took Krakow, Poznañ and Warsaw, with an
attack on Danzig cancelled. Though the Para’s had to be dropped on
Poznañ, just to make sure.
We were all very impressed by the amount of colour in the game.
October 1939 Mud came to halve the Air strengths. And in sympathy, the
RAF missed their cities completely. The Lûtzow caused 2EPs damage and
the U-Boats another 4 against the 32 escorts, who flipped a U-Boat.
Chris sent a Swordfish from Ark Royal to spot the Lûtzow in the South
Atlantic (needed a 12, got a 12), but the search groups fluffed it.
As the full existential horror of the Italian apathy rule sank in, Allan
decided he can be bothered to declare war on Greece. Though Sitzkreig
forbids it, we assume he could declare war in September, before
Sitzkreig is in operation, and as this is a learning game… Of course, in
a “proper” game, denuding Italy’s defences to pursue the ghost of
Imperial greatness probably isn’t the greatest move against a nimble
Anglo-French player. But if you can do it quickly and redeploy, you can
conquer Greece before the Allies can properly react, and even if you
can’t, can they afford to reduce their own German defences to take
advantage your Italian weakness? Argh, the joy of strategic questions!
So, in the kind of mal-deployed, ill-prepared operation we’ve come to
expect from the Italians, Regia Marina landed two infantry steps into
E4631, next to Athens with a pathetically light escort. The Greek CA
Averoff and a DD rush to intercept, but Regia Aeronautica spots them. 2
SM79s and a CR42 fly to bomb the Greeks, counter-intercepted by the
Greek PZL24 outside Athens. The Greeks try to attack the bombers. The
CR42 flips and aborts the Greeks, but it flips and aborts a SM79.
However, the remaining SM79 sinks (8 +1 with double 4) the Averoff on
its first shot, and then flips the DD. The DD retreats. Another CR42
attacks the Greek air force at Athens, but misses.
Italians attempt their amphibious landing, with bomber and fighter
support. The heroic Greek fighter rises again, but is destroyed trying
to get at the bombers. So the invasion goes in with air superiority (2),
for a 1/ result, so it is successful (because the hex is unoccupied),
but with a step loss and no free supply. But it succeeds in the
strategic aim of cutting off the supply of the bulk of the Greek army up
on the border from Athens.
A Greek Mountain and Infantry unit withdraw from the Albanian border,
with their leader, to respond to the invasion. With Italian air
superiority, apathetic Italians, concentric attack, and both sides out
of supply, gives a 2-1 at evens. But roll of 3 puts one step loss on the
Greeks, who mutter about setting-up differently next time.
Italians try to break the central Albanian front, at 2-1 +1, rolling 1,
for a 2/ on the attacker. Greece is a tough little bunny for everyone.
Russia liberates Bessarabia, Eastern Poland and the Baltic States from
the oppression of its Bourgeois Accommodationist capitalist lackeys.
November 1939 More mud, but only light. The RAF chips away another 5EPs
in night bombing, so the Luftwaffe night bombs France for 3, and the
U-Boats sink another 4, but Iron Ore interdiction snatches a further
5EPs.
Lûtzow feels the pressure of the search groups in the South Atlantic,
and decides to discretion its way back to Germany. The French fleet
sorties from Brest to try to intercept, and is spotted by the Bern air
group. But the Bern is too slow, and as the Lûtzow speeds off, its air
group fails to find its target. But north of Scotland, the Lûtzow is
bombed by Wellingtons, but all four rolls all miss, and Lûtzow sails
into Schilling Roads to a heroes’ welcome — and mild surprise that a
warship actually survivied air attacks.
The Italians lose a valuable STP supplying its Greek beachhead. And a
He111 and Do17 find a French SS on the Iron Ore Interdiction, flipping
it. SSs on the Iron Ore Interdiction redeploy off the coast of Norway,
as winter will close down the Swedish route.
The Italians use their final offensive of the season, trying to break
the out of supply Albanian front, 4-1 +1 at 4, giving /2. The Italians
take the advance after combat step loss to take the precious border hex.
Greece is turning into an exercise in winkling out the Greeks hex by
hex.
But the Greeks give up hope, with no answer to the Italian grinder they
pitch everything on re-establishing their supply line to Athens. They
leave the border to attack the now supplied E4631. The Italian have
naval and air support up to the max +5, for 10, so the Greek can only
manage attacking at 3-2 (at which point we realise a miscount in the
earlier Greek attack - believing the Italians had 4 rather than their
actual 5 points — ho hum). So the Greeks call off the attack, fearing
they’ll hurt themselves more than the Italians, even with the attrition
roll to come for being two turns out of supply.
The Greeks attrition causes 7 steps (1 mountain) of losses. Bugger! (And
we noticed that if the Italians had landed at Heraklion, Greece would
have surrendered [half cities captured and units next to the capital] —
so the Greeks have to put their lone rebuild there).
December 1939 Winter, but a light one in the severe zone, but air is
grounded in the moderate zone.
11EPs lost to Iron Ore interdiction, ooch, for only 2 EPs from U-boats,
one of which is flipped. Double ooch!
Italian Fleet supports the beachhead with 5 naval gunfire support to
make up for the grounded airpower. They also loose another STP to drop
supply on to the beachhead, which seems a bit loose with the STPs,
especially as most of the Greek Army is now dead.
In Finland, the Worker’s and Peasant’s Red Army execute a daring “Pearl
Harbour” with an Air Offensive against the Helsinki with 2 bombers, and
2 I16 to soak up the Finnish fighter. My I16s miss, and Finns shoot down
both I16s – letting the bombers get through. But two hits from flak (6s)
and both misses. So disaster! Four air units committed, all took hits,
three were already flipped. Worst possible result, ever. It just makes
you want to purge someone!
The Germans storm into Denmark, but the Danish navy flees to Britain.
The Heroes of the Morther Russia attack the unfortified end of the
Finnish line at top odds +1 (air + concentric) for a DE, and the attack
at the fortified end at 4-1 -2 for a 3 [/1] which becomes a 1/ because
of the fort. Bugger!
The Greeks shoot themselves in the foot losing another step trying to
dislodge the Italian beachhead.
January 40 Stalin’s purge reduces the number of offensives from 6 to 4,
but he feels cathartic.
The weather is no air in severe zone, half strength in the moderate
zone.
Germany sniggers as the RAF cause no strategic warfare damage for one
flipped bomber from flak. While the Lutfwaffe wallops 5EPs off the
French, but the smile wears thin with step losses on a Ju87 and a He111.
And then 9EPs from the Iron Ore interdiction tips the fevered Dictator’s
mind into a blood-lust for revenge (and it was getting late and we
wanted to see how Norway is invaded).
German declares war on Norway. RAF spots the Kreigsmarine leaving Kiel,
but they evade (they have 4) at the bottom of Norway. The German Oslo
assault force also evades. Two task forces slip under cover of darkness
into Bergen and Oslo. The Norwegian CA is sunk with Kreigsmarine
torpedoes. That helpful Mr Quisling fails to sneak the Germans into
Oslo. So the Germans do it the hard way, and also stroll in Bergen. But
Norway fights on.
The remorseless Russians plough on with 5-1 against end of the Finnish
line, -1, getting 8 for DE. At then other end, they get 2-1 -1 for 7
equals /2. And the Finns are in a World of Hurt.
The Italians, for whom “blitzkrieg” is very much a foreign term, grind
on at 5-1 +1. They get 8 for DE against a Greek stack, so finally
hooking up with the beachhead that landed in October. They also mount a
surprise invasion of E4733, to open up another attack hex on Athens. It
succeeds with a step loss, but with a free supply
Afterwards And so ended as much fun as four men can have without doing
anything rude. We liked it very much, and we looked forward to liking it
even more once the trivia of rules and counters are sorted out. Heck, I
even bought the game! How rash is that?